Today in the mail I received what must be a cashier’s check. It’s drawn on a local credit union, it’s typed out, and it says “official check”. The sender is a friend to whom I loaned money a couple months back, but her name and account number is not on the check itself. It’s made out to my first name only, which is puzzling me. Should I deposit it as is, should I write out my last name on it… or what?
I’d like to know the “legal” answer to this question.
FWIW, though, I generally find that it doesn’t matter what name is on a check when it’s deposited. Really. Cashing may be another issue, because they’re being careful. For example, my most recent experience was depositing a money order made out to someone else that I decided not to spend (closing, or something like that). No problem.
I guess I will just deposit it as is. I wonder if this was a passive-aggressive way of paying back a debt, a mistake, or she didn’t have my last name with her (it’s unusual and confusing). Unfortunately, I don’t feel comfortable calling and asking her, as our friendship is no longer intact, partly because she took so long in paying me back.
It will probably go through just fine especially since it is a cashiers check. Checking law is pretty lenient when it comes to names on a check. I have always gone by middle name and have never had a problem cashing a check even with misspellings.
Likewise, the singer “Sting” (or any other example of your choice) wouldn’t have any problems cashing a check under those circumstances.